Numerical simulation of monodisperse droplet generation in nozzles

In this contribution further development of our in-house FEM based parallel 3D simulation tool FeatFlow will be presented. In particular, we give an insight into the recent developments of the Level Set based multiphase module, which has been extended with high order (Q2) discretization to increase the robustness and accuracy of the arising prediction tool for the simulation of monodisperse droplet generation processes. According to the given extension, an implementation of the surface reconstruction has been performed which on one hand guarantees the exact identification of the interface and on the other hand offers the advantages of the underlying multilevel structures to perform octree fashioned highly efficient reinitialization of the Level Set field. Validation of the newly extended 3D simulation tool was performed on the well established two dimensional benchmark configuration involving the rising bubble problem. Results of numerical simulations for more realistic gas-liquid systems are to be presented and compared with three dimensional experimental and computational reference results. Further extension of the developed simulation tool with non-Newtonian rheological (shear rate dependent viscosity) models has been realized and validated on the “flow around cylinder” benchmark problem. Subsequently, investigations in terms of numerical simulations for the rising bubble configurations have been performed and compared to reference data. Finally, results of numerical simulations involving droplet generation from a nozzle are to be presented and further application of the developed simulation tool is discussed.